The Richard Hillman serial killer storyline continued to deliver very strong ratings for Coronation Street as it reached its climax. In January, Maxine Peacock was murdered by Richard in order to silence her while his intended victim, Emily Bishop, survived a blow to the head and recovered. Over the coming weeks, Richard's web of lies collapsed and Gail forced a confession from him in an episode which was mostly a two-hander between Richard and Gail (though Sarah and David Platt made a short appearance). Richard was rejected by Gail but, after spending a few weeks on the run, he returned and tried to drown the family by driving their people carrier into Weatherfield Canal. Richard was the only casualty, with Brian Capron making his final appearance in the series as Richard's corpse.

By this point, Coronation Street's Monday night double-bills were a regular feature, with five episodes shown on most weeks. The programme reverted to four per week between June and August before going back up to five, now permanently, with the fifth episode fixed at 8.30pm on Monday evenings.

Todd Grimshaw began to struggle with his sexuality in October, marking the beginning of his coming out storyline which had been in the pipeline since the character debuted in 2001. In Episode 5596, after getting to know his girlfriend Sarah's brother Nick Tilsley, Todd instinctively leaned in for a kiss, leading to the latter storming out and informing Sarah. Adam Rickitt agreed to return full-time in preparation for the storyline. Carefully plotted by Daran Little, Todd's confusion over his sexual identity continued into 2004 and the first consensual gay kiss, between Todd and nurse Karl Foster, occurred in Episode 5733 in April.

Although Todd was promoted as Coronation Street's first gay character (with some newspapers incorrectly assuming that he was initially meant to be straight), homosexuals had appeared in minor roles before Todd kissed Nick. One of them was Sean Tully, a clubber at the hospital disco who was seen in one episode in July. Antony Cotton reprised Sean full-time the following year.

The Watts family were axed in their entirety in September, marking the departure of Kevin Kennedy as Curly after twenty years and Angela Lonsdale as Emma after three. Curly was written out at the reluctance of Kieran Roberts, who liked the character but conceded that turning him into a family man - a decision taken by his predecessor Jane Macnaught - had been the wrong direction for him. The door was left open, with the Watts moving to Newcastle.

Blanche Hunt was absent between May and November due to Maggie Jones falling ill. She returned in Episode 5630, the episode in which Julie Goodyear began a seven-episode stint as Bet Lynch. Although Goodyear's 2002 comeback had been a failure, with Goodyear quitting due to exhaustion, her willingness to return led writers to consider short storylines featuring Bet which would not overwork the actress. All of Goodyear's scenes were shot on location in Blackpool, with Steve, Karen, Liz and Jim McDonald and Fred Elliott travelling from Weatherfield. Beverley Callard and Charles Lawson returned especially for the storyline which saw Jim escape from prison to confront Liz - now living in Blackpool - about her lover Laurie Dyson. Despite Goodyear's continued interest in returning, these are her final appearances in Coronation Street to date.

For the first time since 1998, the BARB ratings average of the year was higher than the year before. In Coronation Street's strongest year of the decade ratings-wise, the overall figure was 13.23 million viewers, an increase of 1.3m viewers on 2002. This was the biggest jump from year-to-year since 1963.

All months except December were up on the equivalent months in 2002, with the biggest rises - the latter of nearly four million viewers - occurring in February and March as the Richard Hillman storyline reached its climax. Richard's confession to Gail, transmitted on 24th February, gained Coronation Street's highest audience of the decade, with 19.43 million viewers. Only three episodes had audiences below ten million viewers, down from 16 in 2002.

37 episodes reached number one, an increase of three from 2002. No episodes fell outside the top twenty.